Nearly six million people were reached by the Church of England's Easter Twitter campaign.

The campaign used the hashtag #EverythingChanges to share the Christian meaning of Easter via the social media site.

Official figures from the Church of England show that the campaign had a cumulative reach of 5.8 million users from the 8.527 tweets sent out over the Easter period. 

Vicky Beeching (@vickybeeching), Research Fellow in Internet ethics at St John's College Durham said: "The #everythingchanges hashtag was another great example of the Church engaging proactively with the digital sphere.

"To get a new 'digital generation' to feel welcome in Church and to hear the Christian message, using social media is crucial.

"Social media is a medium where all of life is lived; meaningful messages can be communicated and the Church is boldly embracing the digital world in these campaigns."

The Bishop of Southwell & Nottingham, the Right Reverend Paul Butler (@BishopPaulB), praised the campaign, saying it had caught the imagination of people across the county.

"Since we seek to share the joy of the risen Jesus, that's good news," he said.  

The Bishop of Worcester, the Right Reverend Dr John Inge (@BishopWorcester) added: "I'm delighted to have been able to be one of those tweeting the wonderful good news which we celebrate in the resurrection - that love wins."

Clergy and churchgoers were encouraged to take part in the campaign. 

Trainee Vicar Liz Clutterbuck (@LizClutterbuck) said she had been hugely encouraged to watch the campaign spread across Twitter from Good Friday onwards.

"Young and old embraced it and used it to demonstrate to their followers of all faiths and non what the resurrection means for all," she said.  

Blogger, the Reverend Peter Ould (@PeterOuld) said the campaign demonstrated the way social media can "not just help bring faith communities together, but also enable them to reach out beyond their boundaries in innovative and modern ways".

"In an increasingly technologically grounded generation this is the way forward for the Church of England to communicate," he said.